Lifting the heel

[Crash]

I have been rowing lifting my heel and pushing off with top of my foot. This i believe is poor form and could be causing my pain.

Watched some videos about keeping the heel down but when I do that I can only get a fraction of leg flex / travel before my heels start to come up.

Would raising or lowering the foot position help with this?

Crash

[hjs]

I have been rowing lifting my heel and pushing off with top of my foot. This i believe is poor form and could be causing my pain.

Watched some videos about keeping the heel down but when I do that I can only get a fraction of leg flex / travel before my heels start to come up.

Would raising or lowering the foot position help with this?

Crash

90% of people do lift the heel. Do not worry, you have to very flexible in the ankle to not do so. It has nothing to do with poor form.
Re feet, ankle should be at rail height, so you move paralel to the rail.

[KeithT]

It's OK if you heel comes up but it get back down quickly and push with foot and not toes.

[Dutch]

I row with the footplates in hole 4, I used to use hole 3 and even 2 sometimes. But In the last 3 months I actually devoted a whole session to finding the right placement. I just rowed a few pieces about 2 mins long using low rate to medium pace to 10 hard pulls and 4 does perfect for me.
I am a size 9 and use standard light running trainers to row in and the strap goes right on the bottom lace, just covering it.
When I rowed using hole 3, foot lift was slightly more but in hole 4 I hardly get any.
Another rule of thumb I find is that if your second lace up from the bottom is covered you are may be restricting foot movement too much. But this could be an advantage for sprints as lot of people only use half or three quarter slide anyway and heel lift is not sought after in sprints, so some claim!

[Cyclist2]

Foot stretcher height has nothing to do with heel lift. Look at all the C2 videos and you'll see some heel lift. The height of your feet should be adjusted so that you get the most horizontal movement without over- or under- compressing at the catch.

In other words, if your feet are too high (max horizontal motion) you can't compress enough, your butt comes under and your catch is weak, plus you're prone to injury. If your feet are too low, you will over compress (shins beyond 90 degrees) and you impart an upward component to the drive, potentially lifting you off the seat.

As hjs notes, the ankle should be at rail height as a starting point, then fine tune it depending on your flexibility. In my case, for long steady rows I use a lower position since my drive and recovery are very slow. For sprints or 2K efforts I use a higher foot position since I'm looking for the most horizontal power and the drive and recovery are fast and powerful. My heels lift in either situation.

[ampire]

Dark Horse Rowing promulgated some idea to crossfitters that one shouldn't lift heels ever. This notion is false and it is a non issue. Most rowers lift their heels. Shane (DHR) himself lifts his heel. Many Olympian rowers lift their heels. It doesn't really matter. The important thing is that on the drive, you contact the foot plate firmly with your heel and midfoot to accelerate down the slide.

Using a shoe with a firm non-compressible heel such as a weightlifter shoe will improve your heel contact speed on the drive. Cameron Buchan made a video about the ideal shoe being a flat one, but ended up using a weight lifting shoe at World's 2020 so I guess he decided it was better to have a heel.

I found that sitting on the front edge of the seat improves my ability to compress into the catch and drive out. You could try that and see if it helps.

[mict450]

I have been rowing lifting my heel and pushing off with top of my foot. This i believe is poor form and could be causing my pain.

Nothing wrong with lifting your heels. However, you shouldn't be experiencing any pain. Where is your pain, when does it occur?

Dark Horse Rowing promulgated some idea to crossfitters that one shouldn't lift heels ever. This notion is false and it is a non issue. Most rowers lift their heels. Shane (DHR) himself lifts his heel. Many Olympian rowers lift their heels. It doesn't really matter. The important thing is that on the drive, you contact the foot plate firmly with your heel and midfoot to accelerate down the slide.

I like Shane & think he provides great videos. But I wish he would delete his video about keeping your heels down at the catch.

[Crash]

Thanks for all the feedback. I have been rowing for a while on one for those Sunny Machines and I rowed it to death.

I found on the C2 I could really put more power into it but I find if I push to hard with the legs, my left inner upper thigh feels strained into the left side of the groin and i feel it on left side at the waist if i were to bend over to touch toes after hard rowing. The tenderness goes away a few hours later.

If I row at a weaker pace I can go for 30 min with no issues.

Crash

[Ombrax]

I found on the C2 I could really put more power into it but I find if I push to hard with the legs, my left inner upper thigh feels strained into the left side of the groin and i feel it on left side at the waist if i were to bend over to touch toes after hard rowing. The tenderness goes away a few hours later.

If I row at a weaker pace I can go for 30 min with no issues.

Some suggestions:

Warm up before each rowing session.

Be sure you stretch properly before and after rowing. You should also consider stretching on your off days too.

Overall, take things very slowly, and don't try to do too much too quickly on the erg. Ramp up effort and distance gradually.

If the issue continues see a medical professional.

Good Luck

[Tsnor]

"... lifting my heel and pushing off with top of my foot. .." Surely not with the top of your foot. Grin.

There was a thread earlier talking about feet/heels where Nomath posted a neat study that gave a pressure diagram of where elite rowers actually push on the foot stretchers. It's right where you are pressing. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=194142&p=519361&hilit=heels#p519361

Also, on the catch, you want your shins vertical, and not past vertical. Sometimes while attempting to get a long stroke people come too far forward at the catch. They go past vertical on their shins causing their heels to pop high off the foot stretchers. If your heels are coming high off the footplate do verify that you are not getting too compressed at the catch. If you are going past vertical try shortening your stroke a bit while trying to hold constant effort -- you'll be surprised how the split numbers improve at constant effort with the better (not too compressed) catch.

[mict450]

I found on the C2 I could really put more power into it but I find if I push to hard with the legs, my left inner upper thigh feels strained into the left side of the groin and i feel it on left side at the waist if i were to bend over to touch toes after hard rowing. The tenderness goes away a few hours later.

Glad to hear that the pain doesn't last long. One thing that the groin muscles do is to adduct the femur back to the centerline of the body. This is not normally a movement one associates with erging. If your leg alignment is off, ie: having your knees splayed out at the catch, the drive of your legs will activate the femur adductors to bring your legs back to the centerline at the finish. If this is the case, you need to keep your legs in alignment at the catch.

Just a SWAG, since I haven't viewed your erging stroke.

[munirahalatas]

Hi everyone! After reading all the comments here to avoid heel blisters, can someone please list in simple terms, what I should do? Shoes, socks only, barefeet, adjust foot plate..? I guess I'm confused! I've been rowing for 2 months now, feel great, but the blisters are causing me anxiety. Thanks and apologies for being repetitive. Munirah.

[gvcormac]

Hi everyone! After reading all the comments here to avoid heel blisters, can someone please list in simple terms, what I should do? Shoes, socks only, barefeet, adjust foot plate..? I guess I'm confused! I've been rowing for 2 months now, feel great, but the blisters are causing me anxiety. Thanks and apologies for being repetitive. Munirah.

I wear socks only.

[Carl Watts]

Lefting the heel is pretty normal.

Because I leave the same pair of shoes on the rower until they are worn out the pattern of movement is obvious. My right foot smashes the back of the shoe in the heal area from constant movement but the left is fine. I recall from Xrays years ago that one of my legs is 3mm shorter than the other, probably doesn't help and quite often the drive is not dead centre either with the chain going either left or right.

If you actually concentrate on keeping your heels down you can make it happen, if you drift off and just "Freestyle" your body does its own thing.

[Dangerscouse]

Hi everyone! After reading all the comments here to avoid heel blisters, can someone please list in simple terms, what I should do? Shoes, socks only, barefeet, adjust foot plate..? I guess I'm confused! I've been rowing for 2 months now, feel great, but the blisters are causing me anxiety. Thanks and apologies for being repetitive. Munirah.

Are your shoes too big? Socks too thin? It's only due to rubbing, so I'd guess it has to be one of those issues.

I can't row barefoot, and I wear fairly thick running socks and shoes that are a real snug fit